Collaboration: unresolved forms of working together in contemporary architectural practice

Abstract

The essay examines how several contemporary architects understand the role that collaboration plays in the day-to-day practice of architecture and in the development of projects for diverse stakeholders. Although architects have always worked together and with other professionals, the essay argues that contemporary economic and political pressures have returned the issue of working together to the forefront of architectural discourse. What is perhaps different in the contemporary context, is that technology, media, and social relations make it possible to envision distinct and perhaps new forms of collaboration, making the way we work together ever more important to understand and interrogate.